An analysis of 400+ diet books

Only 20% of the advice in diet books tells you what to eat. Here's what it means

About 55 million Americans are on a diet at any given moment. Half of the country says it’s trying to lose weight. Diet and weight loss books generate about $600 million in sales each year.

This isn’t anything new. Diet books have been around since the 1860s, yet obesity grew 3,900% since then.

A Cornell researcher named Adrienne Bitar decided to figure out why. She analyzed 400+ diet books spanning that entire history.

What she found wasn’t about food.

In today’s post, you’ll learn:

• Why only 20% of diet books are about actual nutrition.

• What fills the other 80%, and what that reveals about us.

• Why certain diets catch on while others die: sales tactics, stories, etc.

• The single most important metric that determines if you will actually lose fat.

• How to use findings from 400+ diet books for the rest of your life, without the marketing fluff.

Housekeeping

• In case you missed it:

  • On Wednesday, we ran Don’t Die: Do Pullups part II. It’ll help you do more pullups, one of the most important exercises you can do.

  • Friday was a deep dive into GLP-1s and muscle loss, based on breaking new research.

  • We had two great podcasts last week: A conversation with Melissa Urban and an episode covering a surprising take on alcohol and the shaky research around social media. Listen here.

• Shoutout to our partners:

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